Churchills and a NA75 conversion

It took forever to get my Churchill's.  It seems the whole world got them before I did.  PCS Churchill's are very well done.  Next to my battlefront Churchill where is no contest to which tank is the best.

Assembling the tank is pretty straight forward. The only part the is a beast to put together is the turret.  Trying to hold the parts together to glue gets a bit interesting. 

Painting the Churchill for the Normandy campaign I use White Ensign Paint number Olive drab BS987C SCC No. 15 (AR B 19).  Found this to be the correct color for this time frame.


You will see a NA75 turret. This was a quick conversion using bit left over from the Shermans.   I had to make a hatch cover for it using styrene sheet cut to size.  I wish PCS would of just put an extra hatch on it.

Now for the photos.

First the NA75 conversion.  Using parts left over from PCS Sherman kits:

and here are the rest of them,

 This a attempt to weather the tracks using migs dark earth powder.

The weathering effect was created using mud from Floquil. I just need to paint the commander.

Stick a fork in the T62 is done

 Well it didn't take a month of longer.   The T62 is finished! Found a left over Russian tank commander from Forged in battle T34. Now the T62 has a commander.  Kurasan T62 is really a nice tank. Not much weather on the tank.  These where brand new to the Syrians from the Russian.

Let me know what you think of the finished tank.  Sometimes I think no one reads this blog :( 
...

Syrian T62 by Khurasan

 Here are some pictures of Khurasan T62.   These are very nice models.  But you will need to do a few things first.  

Clean out the flash in between the road wheels and tracks.  On the turret there are some small steps that need to be removed from the 3d print process.  This can be done using sand paper. It only takes a few minutes.

The T62 where issued to the Syrians shortly before the start of the Yom Kippur war.  I planning not over do the weather. As these where destroy rather quickly in the opening hours of the war. The Soviets rushed fresh T62's to the Syrians during the conflict.  A surprising number are just green all over.   This T62 is a work in progress.  Should have a few completed by this coming weekend.

Now for pictures:

 One thing I wish I added where the sands bags over the external fuel tanks.  The Syrians had learned from other battles that the IDF air bursts.  Would puncture and set the fuels tanks on fire.

Here are some pictures of Syrian T62,T54 & T55:

 

Romans in 28mm

So far I have shown very much of what  ages of wargames I play.  When first started playing at friends house in  his basement. The game was WRG Ancients.  My army was a Carthaginian army battling Byzantines.   With a lot of lucky I managed a draw.  Needless to yes I was hooked.  That was in 1974.  Wow that was along time ago.  Plus a mountain of lead.

I thought I would post a picture of Roman Auxiliary.  The Romans are one of my favorite eras in history.

 

Pictures of IDF and Syrians by Khurasan

Finally some pictures of my paint Khurasan IDF and Syrian's.   These figures are so nice. The detail is amazing.  Painting the Syrians turned out of be easy after finding good color picture of the them during the Yom Kippur War.

 The IDF turned out to be a different story.  The information on the uniforms during the 73 are conflicting to say the least.  Life Colours has an IDF uniform paint set.  Figuring they had the mix correct I purchased the set.  Beware, the color on the box are correct.  But the paint colors in the bottles are way off.   Next during the quest of finding good pictures of the IDF.  I got a real shock.  As you will see in some pictures at are reference only from a IDF site.

Looks like I will be doing a  little repainting of my IDF troop shortly.

Now for pictures.  First the Syrian Infantry.

The ground cover is not what I wanted.  But it will have to do.  After finding good pictures the grass was dry and brown looking. I think I did a good paint job on them.

Next the IDF infantry:

Here are some pictures of IDF uniforms during the 73 war.

 As you can see the uniforms are a mix and match of colors.  So much for the Dark Green as the only color.


The last photo is a comparison of Khurasan, Peter Pig and Quality Casting .
Quality casting as dwarfs compared to the other.  I may be selling of my Peter Pigs troops shortly.  

                   Left Khurasan,Middle Peter Pig, Right Quality Casting

 

New link for Too Fat Lardies folks

As I was going through Blog of war I found this blog: http://cstoesen.blogspot.com/   The blog is written by Chris Stoesen who authored several titles for Too Fat Lardies.   Chris has several great AAR's posted on his blog.   

The one thing I wish we had where I live in Macomb county Michigan is a Gigabye Cafe. Chris and his friend have a great place to game and get food.  

Here is the cafe's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GigaBitesTabletopCafe 
Plus a Yelp link: http://www.yelp.com/biz/giga-bites-cafe-marietta?nb=1 

Two things I love gaming and food...

Happy New Year.

How to attach those blood spears on your Saxon Warriors

I know most people hate attaching the metal spears on the warriors.  90 percent of the time the suckers fall off in the middle of an epic battle.  The other day I decided to post for help of  TMP.   The answers came in from fellow gamers.   I decided to post these methods on the blog.


1. Apply a small amount of white glue on to figure's hand. Apply superglue on the spear. Join. White glue will goo in few seconds because of contact with superglue. It will hold your spear until superglue sets completely.

2. Dab of locktite gel crazy glue on the hand, lick the spear (or otherwise wet it), attach; water accelerates the grab of the crazy glue and will hold it after a few seconds until it completely cures


3. Contact cement. Small dab on hand, likewise on spear , wait 5-10 minutes, join. Set up a dozen at a time. For extra solid support, after a few hours, put a small drop of Gorilla super glue on join. So the cement holds the join and the glue solidifies it.

4. A friend has a good method, He closes the hand with pliers , then drills a hole for the spears and drops them through the holes . He then superglues the spear


5.Put a little brown stuff in the figure's hand, and super glue on the spear. The brown stuff holds it on place while drying, strengthens the bond, and may even accelerate drying time.
Green stuff would probably work too, but I haven't tried it


6. well my solution is resin epoxy and patience thet rarely come off then .Supa glue is fraught with fragility.

As you can see the white glue covered with super glue is the leading method.  Now time to go into the dungeon to working on my Saxon's

 

IDF vehicles during the 73 War

These picture are from a IDF forum.  Only using these pictures to show the paint colors of the IDF.

IDF vehicle paint colors

I found this on the web a while back.  Hope this helps some of the folks in painting their vehicles.  Not sure on the 73 War color.  Have seen some paint in the late colors.

There has always been a lot of discussion between modellers over the right colour of IDF vehicles. I do not intend to give here the exact colour to use, but just one possible solution. Be careful concerning the periods: for example, some vehicles used during the Six Days War were in fact painted in Olive Drab (like the M7 Priest). Also remember that it does not look realistic to paint two vehicles exactly the same colour in a given diorama.

Colour of IDF Vehicles
Period
Sinai War 1956	UA 003 Olive Drab	XF-62 Olive Drab	066 Olive Drab
Six Days War 1967 (FS 30372)	UA 020 Israeli Sand Grey 61-73	50% XF-60 Dark Yellow + 50% XF-57 Buff	85% 083 Ochre + 15% 117 U.S. Light Green
			072 Khaki Drill
Yom Kippur War 1973	UA 020 Israeli Sand Grey 61-73	33% XF-57 Buff + 33% XF-59 Desert Yellow + 33% XF-20 Medium Grey	50% 092 Grey Green + 25% 093 Desert Yellow + 25% 034 White
			50% 072 Khaki Drill + 25% 093 Desert Yellow + 25% 034 White
Lebanon War 1982 (FS 36134)	UA 035 Israeli Sand Grey 82	50% XF-20 Medium Grey + 50% XF-57 Buff	50% 164 Dark Sea Grey + 20% 163 Dark Green III + 15% 062 Leather + 15% 121 Pale Stone

Battle group Kursk rules

I find these rules very realistic.   At least to me. Having started with the original Warhammer History rules which sad was cancelled.  Only to be brought back by Plastic soldier company.  Battle ground Normandy and Kursk.  The game limits your actions, makes you think about what is your next move.  Only to find out there was really a tiger been the bushes.   

No better to explain the rules than by the author, Mr Warwick Kinarde.  Below is a link from Model Dads Blog.   If your have time to watch the video, let me know what you think about the rules:

Battle group kursk rule set. 

200th annivesary of the Battle of Leipzig

Found this on the Der Speigel. 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/battle-of-nations-re-enacted-by-6000-people-in-leipzig-a-929104.html

There are some great pictures of the re enactors in uniform. Where did I put my Austrians..??

Enjoy